Something is happening this afternoon in British Columbia. They are testing an electric airplane.
It’s just a small float plane, but still, it’s electric.
Electric airplanes have been tough to figure out. Solar panels don’t give you quite enough juice. Your local hardware store probably doesn’t stock an extension cord long enough. And batteries… there is a very delicate balance between enough to power your plane and too much weight to stay airborne.
In this case, they are looking at a small plane that can hop around the islands. The islands aren’t far apart, so the fact that you only have enough battery life to stay in the air for fifteen minutes or so seems like it would work.
The hope is to first prove the concept of an electric airplane, then , as battery technology gets better, the idea can be expanded. Electric planes can get bigger. Or maybe smaller, so we can all have one. The fact that it is happening in Canada is pretty cool.
Maybe if it works, we can go back to that Jetson’s dream of everyone having a flying car. Although we should probably figure out how to drive them safely on the ground first.
